Far from straightforward Steve.
Question No 1: How is our debt incurred this year a signficant multiple of our "licensed" annual wage bill? Not sure that can be answered with a straight face.
To the Shels posters above dusting off their high horses for some quality moral outrage, I'd say we're guilty of exactly some of the tricks you were guilty of and I doubt we'll get away with a one step demotion. C'est la vie. As Kev says above, we deserve it.
The main problem for the future is that there may be significant legal problems around starting a new vehicle due to the historic exemption to play in the LoI. Although why this wasn't a problem the last two times we went under I'm not entirely sure.
Fun times.
There was a news clip of Delaney on the radio this morning saying the situation is very grave and he hopes Derry can come through it in some division.
Not exact words there but sounded like the minimum punishment will be relegation to Division 1
Larry Be Wyse
www.acsportsimages.com
Derry may well be demoted and there is no doubt (If what the articles say is true) that they deserve it but after the Cork debacle of the last 2 years and they're stilll playing premier football, i'm not going to hold my breath. Also before someone mentions it, i'm not sitting here rubbing my hands at the thought of Derry being demoted.
Maybe, if anything, i'm sitting here rubbing my hands at the thought of the FAI actually following their own rules and carrying out a worthy punishment.
They always cheat, they always lie
**** Delaney and the FAI
A transient, horrible, fantastic dream,
Wherein is nothing yet all things do seem:
From which we're wakened by a friendly nudge
Of our bedfellow Death, and cry: "O fudge!"
Ambrose Bierce
What sum of money would Derry need to at least get a First Division licence, so they would have some chance of rebuilding like Shelbourne?
Someone on Radio Foyle said "not even £1million would save Derry City". Dunno how true that is. Public lynching for whoever is behind this mess.
DCFC
Have heard Derry are relegated and Bray v Drogs will be the play offs. Was apparently on TV3. Can anyone confirm?
Nothing in particular on the internet at the moment (bar Derry being relegated in the GAA); sounds a bit quick for a decision to have been made. Wouldn't be surprised though.
Interesting to look back at the thread on the 2009 licencing - Derry were one of only two or three clubs which the Indo reported had no outstanding issues.
Would relegation be seen as a (relatively) good outcome for Derry, given the alternative is reforming in the A League?
Have done a bit of scouring but can't find anything on those stories. Which isn't to say it isn't true, but there's so many rumours at the moment.
From today's Irish Times
FAI to hold emergency meeting over Derry's future
EMMET MALONE
Fri, Nov 06, 2009
LEAGUE OF IRELAND: THE BOARD of FAI will hold an emergency meeting tomorrow to consider Derry City’s future amid growing concerns about the club’s ability to survive the deepening crisis that has enveloped it.
City have been struggling to meet their financial commitments for some time, with players largely unpaid for the last nine weeks. Other debts have been mounting to the point where, while estimates vary considerably, there appears to be upwards of €300,000 owed in total.
A portion of that is due to Dungannon Swifts, with the Irish League outfit entitled to a percentage of the deal that brought Niall McGinn to Celtic. Having failed to secure their money after a number of attempts, Dungannon recently initiated a court action to have City wound up.
The club’s more immediate problem might centre on the accuracy of financial documentation provided to the FAI over the course of this season. Speaking yesterday at the launch of a licensing system aimed at providing regulation of scouts operating for foreign clubs in Ireland, FAI chief executive John Delaney declined to reveal what had come to light at a meeting on Wednesday evening between officials representing the association and club, but said the matter would be considered by the association last night.
Soon after this meeting finished, it was announced that the board is to be convened tomorrow. The precise agenda was not revealed but Delaney described the state of affairs at the Brandywell as “grave” more than once yesterday before stating that “if we do find a situation where we’ve been given information which differs from what it should have been then we will take it very seriously”.
He provided a hint of just how “seriously” when he said that the matter is likely to be dealt with quickly as it might well have implications for the relegation play-offs.
That would, at the very least require a points deduction of something approaching 20 points although the sense in Abbotstown yesterday was that outright relegation is very much a possibility.
“I want to make it clear that I know what it means to the FAI to have Derry City competing in the league and also what it means to everyone in Derry to be a part of the League of Ireland but I would be really concerned about the meeting that took place last night,” said Delaney. “At this stage I hope that Derry City do survive but in what guise they might survive, I really don’t know.”
Cobh Ramblers were mentioned shortly afterwards and while a direct connection was not made, it was revealed that the FAI is looking at the possibility of appointing an independent, outside chairman to run the club for a period of a year to 18 months in an attempt to help stabilise it after what has been a turbulent spell.
Ramblers dropped out of the First Division last year after failing to lodge the required accounts with the association and amid considerable internal strife.
Cork City also remains a major concern, admitted Delaney, who criticised the “cavalier” manner in which a number of clubs had approached their finances over the last couple of years. He described some of the situations that have arisen this season at the Turner’s Cross outfit as “just rubbish” and said that the club’s problems had had a negative impact on the league generally.
Indeed, such is the seriousness of the situation generally at present that the players’ union, the PFAI, has threatened to go on strike at the start of next season unless the association guarantees more rigorous control over players’ contracts through its licensing system. “We don’t see it having got any better,” said the union’s general secretary, Stephen McGuinness, with regard to the league‘s financial situation.
Meanwhile, Delaney said he expected a deal to be finalised over the next week on the rights to broadcast the second leg of Ireland’s World Cup play-off against France in Paris on November 18th.
Reports yesterday said RTÉ and Sky were well short of the €1.5 million the French Football Federation were seeking for broadcast rights, and that a live broadcast of the game was in doubt.
However, Delaney dismissed this as “commercial posturing”.
Nominations for player of the year: Jason Byrne (Bohemian FC), Raffaele Cretaro (Sligo Rovers), Gary Deegan (Bohemian FC), Brian Shelley (Bohemian FC), Chris Turner (Dundalk), Gary Twigg (Shamrock Rovers).
© 2009 The Irish Times
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